Friday, June 30, 2017

It must be something in the water. or too much pakalolo, Bruddah. Literally moments after the Supreme Court unanimously approved most of President Trump's travel ban on 6 nations with well entrenched terrorism movements and/or a history of supporting terrorism, the State of Hawaii filed a court challenge to suspend it again.

The state of Hawaii asked a federal judge to clarify that the administration cannot enforce a temporary ban against certain U.S. connections. Want to bet they went to federal Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii again? He's the judge who originally somehow found that the travel ban violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Since the ban doesn't mention religion at all,does not ban travel from most Muslim countries (and all the banned countries, while predominantly Muslim have significant non-Muslim minorities) Judge Watson relied not on the actual substance of the president's executive order, but on his personal interpretation of statements the president made on the campaign trail.I mean, why bother about actually ruling on the order's actual legal content?

Judge Watson, of course, is a long time crony of former President Obama, a classmate of Obama at Harvard and of course an Obama appointed judge.

President Donald Trump's travel ban went into effect on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. two days after the U.S. Supreme Court made its decision. The Hawaii legal challenge was filed almost immediately after.

President Trump's travel ban applies to all citizens of 6 countries except those who have significant ties to the United States, limited to visiting visit spouses, parents, children, siblings or sons- and daughters-in-law.

The Hawaiian legal challenge want to extend that to - wait for it - fiancés, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins among others. Since literally anyone can claim they are someone's 'cousin' 'uncle' or 'aunt' et cetera and almost none of these people have any actual documentation of these family ties, this is an attempt to make President Trump's travel ban essentially meaningless.

The idea of course is to delay implementing President Trump's travel ban,which is perfectly legal and constitutional according to settled law going back to 1952.Since this session of the Supreme Court is now ended, the idea is to delay implementing it until the Supreme Court is back in session next fall.

These swine are willing to risk American lives and national security in order to use lawfare and play partisan politics.

If I were the president and a judge actually approves this, I would have any judge who cooperates with this nonsense arrested and try him for obstruction of justice and violating federal law, along with AG Chin. Let the Supreme Court rule on that when they come back in session.

This song, "Stiff Upper Lip" was written by Byron De La Vandal. it is about the UK in the 21st century and reflects the emotion of quite a few people in the UK in view of their government's inaction against Islamist terrorism and subversion.

After failing to thwart two terror attacks that have occurred in the U.K. so far this year – both of which were carried out by suspected jihadis who were known to U.K. authorities – intelligence agencies have identified 23,000 potential jihadis living in Britain, according to a report published in the Times of London on Saturday.

Out of that total, 3,000 are suspected of posing an “imminent threat” and are being investigated accordingly, the Times reports. Meanwhile, the other 20,000 have been involved with past investigations and have been categorized as posing a “residual risk.”

Those MI5 figures were confirmed by UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd the following day on Andrew Marr's BBC show.

I personally bet this is a low ball estimate, based on the UK's law enforcement agencies previous desire to ignore Islamist extremism for the sake of political correctness. And even at that, these men and women are still free, even the 3,000 who pose an imminent threat.

More proof that MI5 is likely underestimating the nature of the problem is the fact that both Manchester attacker Salman Abedi and Westminster killer Khalid Masood were in a pool of “former subjects of interest” and were no longer the subject of surveillance efforts, the Times reported. Abedi, a 23-year-old whose parents immigrated to the U.K. from Libya, killed 22 kids, in addition to himself, when he detonated a bomb just as attendees of a concert by American singer Ariana Grande were rushing for the exits following her concert.

Is it any wonder that hideous attacks like the one on the Finsbury Mosque in London are occurring as people see their government as ineffectual in providing even basic public safety from Islamist terrorism? That some people are likely to take matters into their own hands?

By an odd coincidence, a motion picture is premiering soon that is based on one of Britain's finest hours, Dunkirk. In 1940, when France fell to the Nazis, the British expeditionary force was trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk with their backs to the sea, subject to artillery and tank attacks from the land and strafing and bombing from the Luftwaffe. To rescue their army, the British pulled off an amazing feat of heroism. They sent everything that could float across the channel to pick up the stranded troops - naval vessels, tug boats, even pleasure boats and yachts captained by civilians who volunteered and jauntily sailed their boats into fire and shell. As Churchill put it afterwards, "The little ships of England brought the Army home." And the rescued soldier became the core of the British Army who helped defeat Hitler.

Does that spirit still exist in Britain? Does it still live there? Byron De La Vandal's "Stiff Upper Lip" and the accompanying video seems to indicate that it does and will surface in the end. Time will tell. In any event, it seems that things are going down to the wire.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com and other publications.

Discussing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting the Jewish state, Ambassador Dani Dayan, Israel’s Consul General in New York, declared that the “real war” is the intimidation, disruption and attempted silencing of pro-Israel voices on U.S. college campuses.

"There we have a real war,” Ambassador Dayan said, referring to attempts to shut down pro-Israel speakers on American campuses. “And we have to be much more aggressive, much more assertive. … But it is not only an Israeli problem, what is happening on many campuses across America. I think it is first and foremost an American problem.”

He's certainly correct, given how conservative speakers are routinely treated when they attempt to speak on campuses and cut through the leftist propaganda students are deluged with.

Ambassador Dayan himself has experienced this. Just last month, he was heckled and interrupted repeatedly during a speech at the City College of New York by students from the CCNY chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine and other anti-Israel groups.

Regarding the anti-Israel actions on U.S. campuses, Ambassador Dayan said, “In some senses, I think we are in the same boat, as we say sometimes in Israel, with other movements that their freedom of speech is obstructed on many campuses.”

He continued: “It happens on the West Coast. It happens on the East Coast. I think as a foreign representative I have to be very careful but I think it is a problem that American society has to deal with not only in respect to Israel.”

“In some senses, it is the same phenomenon that we see on campuses by extreme elements that are also anti-Israeli but not only anti-Israeli. In some cases they are even anti-American. And we as Israel, we have to be relentless. We cannot give up.”

As to that, Ambassador Dayan has vowed to return to CCNY and refuses to be intimidated. We should not give any ground to our enemies,” he stated. “On the contrary, I will make a point of coming to the same place again next year and the next semester. And we must persevere.”

Danon also had something to say about the BDS movement as a whole, which he described as 'a “big failure.”

“Let’s not forget that. “You know, I saw a survey of the market value of the companies targeted by BDS and all of them – for sure the average, maybe there was one that for common business reasons didn’t – but on the average they made twice the market performance. So the economic BDS is a total failure. And it is sufficient to see the shape of Israel’s economy these days.”

President Donald Trump and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi met at the White House for two days and the good chemistry between the two men is obvious.

The two leaders spoke about how theyhave forged important agreements on trade, commerce and mutual national security.While congress still has to approve it, the president is lobbying for India to be able to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance

The AP story accompanying this video has one huge outright lie in it, which is unfortunately typical. It says, " He (Modi) forged a strong relationship with President Barack Obama."

Actually, the relationship between the U.S. and India deteriorated during Barack Hussein Obama's time in the white House.

President Obama's conduct while in India where he refused to visit the Golden Temple further alienated India, and the disrespectful handling and arrest of one of India's diplomats in December 2013 in New York pretty much destroyed whatever was left of any good relations between India's previous Singh government and the U.S.

When Prime Minister Modi was elected in 2014, one of the first things then-President Obama did was to hammer on the Indian government about how they needed to 'make a settlement on Kashmir' with Pakistan. This shocked the Indians, who responded forcefully that the status quo was fine as far as they were concerned and Obama (this is almost a direct quote) was 'barking up the wrong tree.' He further angered them by excluding India from any meaningful input on Afghanistan, and by making a disgraceful deal with terrorist David Headly, AKA Daood Gilani.

Headly, you might remember, was the 'point man' for the hideous 2011 Mumbai terrorist
attacks promulgated by Lashkar-e-Tiaba and Pakistan's ISI, scouting out targets in advance and recording coordinates for the terrorists on a GPS. The Obama Administration refused to even let Indian intel interrogate Headly directly, let alone extradite him.

Modi is a lot like Trump. He was elected when India's economy was stagnant and has since made amazing progress in putting the Indian economy back on track. It's not surprising the two of them seem to be getting along so well, especially since they both have another friend in common, Israel's Benyamin Netanyahu. Like our President, Modi and his BJP party have a strongly pro-Israel stance.

President Trump's revitalizing America's relationship with Israel, the Sunni emirates, Egypt and India and his vastly improved chemistry with China are pointing in an obvious direction. Israel, America and the Sunnis have a common enemy in Iran, and India, Israel and China both have problems with Islamic extremism and terrorism.

What I think we're seeing here is vastly improved ties and coalition building.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Every week on Monday, the WoW! community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question: What's Your Reaction To The Special Elections?

Bookworm Room : The special elections mattered only because the Democrats had three erroneous beliefs: (1) That Trump voters and former #NeverTrumpers want to disable Trump; (2) that money can buy votes; and (3) that polling is credible.

The reality is that even those conservatives who don't particularly like Trump, including those, such as Paul Mirengoff who have moved from being #NeverTrumpers to reluctantly Trump supporters, are pleased with what the President has been able to do despite the Progressives' unrelenting efforts to sidetrack him and, if possible, destroy his presidency entirely. Trump is busy rolling back Obama's unconstitutional executive orders, authorizing federal agencies to enforce laws already on the books, repealing onerous regulations, appointing conservative judges, and leading from the front in international affairs. Compared to that, his occasionally confusing or bombastic tweets seem insignificant.

It's also nice to see that, when it comes to deeply held principles, Americans can't be bought. Progressives can run all the ads they want in Georgia using money from the San Francisco Bay Area, but it's just not going to work. Again, while conservative voters (especially college-educated conservative voters) may not like Trump's style, they sure like his substance.

Finally, who in the world is dumb enough today to put all their faith in the polls?

The reality is that each of the special elections played out precisely as logic would dictate: conservative voters voted for conservative candidates. Wise Progressives (all three of them) have figured this out; the rest of them are providing us with delightful entertainment by attacking Nancy Pelosi and insisting that they would have won if only they'd pulled even harder to the left. You go, guys!

Rob Miller: To borrow Kellyann's bon mot approprié, my reaction was to laugh my ossuff. More at the Dems and the media reaction than at the actual outcome, which I expected. The GOP totals alone in the election with 14 candidates running totaled more than Osssuf's with 1 other Democrat running.

What fascinates me more is the Dem reaction. It has split the party wide open. Not that the split wasn't there before, but this has exacerbated it.

Julian Assange, has an interesting piece on Twit More that I dissected that explores this in depth. He says that the Democrat party is doomed. As a Bernie supporter, Assange paints a picture of what he sees as the party's future.

Mike McDaniel: My general reaction to the special Congressional elections in GA-6 and SC-5 is: so? I’m not demonstrating indifference or apathy. In fact, I don’t care about apathy. My point is I expected both Republicans to win, and within the five-point range, which is exactly what happened.

I was secure in this expectation because for decades, it has been apparent, and even proved through research, which the media has endeavored to keep quiet, that polls tend to favor Democrats by no less than five points. Some suggest it’s because pollsters always oversample Democrats, because of confirmation bias, because some pollsters misreport--purposely--results that favor Republicans, because the media don’t report polls that favor Republicans, particularly by significant margins…the list goes on, and all are likely correct to one degree or another. Therefore, whenever a Democrat is said to be likely to win a close race, I expect the Republican to win by 3-6 points, and am rarely disappointed.

Do I need to point out how utterly unreliable the media are? Do I need to observe if they report it’s dark at midnight, I have to go outside to confirm it? Need I note if the media think the Dem is a shoe-in, I know who is going to win? Thought not.

In the Georgia race, the arguments of the candidates also told the tale. Jon Osoff, as pure a pajamaboy as the DNC could find, began as a doctrinaire Democrat, but as election day approached, he began tacking sharply toward the center, sounding very much like--gasp!--Donald Trump. Karen Handel hit Osoff hard for his earned carpetbagger status, and for the tens of millions of out of state money--mostly from California--that made the race the most expensive in history. Her frequent invocation of Nancy Pelosi was also telling. Americans aren’t fond of her; she’s the embodiment of the San Francisco liberal, clueless, entitled and self-imagined intellectually and morally superior to the flyover country deplorables about whom she and Osoff pretend to care. The comparison stuck to Osoff even as he frantically tried to present himself as just one of the working middle class Democrats love to call racists in particular and bigots in general.

These elections don’t demonstrate quite as much as Republicans and Democrats claim. The Dems have indeed lost four in a row, but in the 2018 elections, they’ll win some--law of averages. I doubt they’ll take back the House, but may slightly narrow the margin.

However, the victory, and the Dem’s bizarre spin(s) regarding it, indicate yet again that Progressivism cannot be falsified. It is akin to religious faith for the aggressively and angrily non-religious. No progressive policy or tactic can possibly be wrong, and no evidence can ever exist sufficient to prove it wrong. If a policy or tactic appears to fail, it’s because not enough money was spent: more than $30 million wasn’t enough, and besides, the Republicans spent lots of money too and didn’t win by as big a margin as they should have! Not enough time has gone by for the policy or tactic to triumph as it inevitably must: yeah we lost now, but just wait until 2018 or 2020; Americans will love our narrative then! Or inevitably, Republicans have been allowed to exist to oppose the righteous: they cheated; it was the weather; Republicans lied about us and our candidate; Russia!, TRUMP!

This makes it very unlikely that Democrats will be able to diagnose their failure and make adjustments. They’ve spent decades so stirring their base into derangement, the entire party is essentially socialist, leaning communist, will all the totalitarian tendencies of those ideologies. Some Dems are apparently recognizing at least some of their huge liabilities, but it’s unlikely the base monster they’ve so willingly created will allow them to move anywhere near the center of traditional American politics.

Thank goodness--and Nancy Pelosi--for that.

Oh, and what must life be like for such perpetually angry, hateful and aggrieved people? All people of good will must pray for such miserable people.

Doug Hagin:Well, I am pleased with the results, although not surprised in the least. And, I am happy that the Democrats still do not get why they lost. They really are in denial.

Don Surber: The special elections represented five open congressional seats, which are the best way to flip a district, especially this late in the 10-year redistricting cycle.

However, all five seats -- four Republican and one Democratic -- remained in their respective parties's folds. This shows the regional partisan split continues.
Rare will be the state that has a Republican senator and a Democratic senator in the future. Last year, there were 34 Senate races. Republicans took all 22 in the states Trump won. Democrats took all 12 in the states Clinton won.

At present, the double victory on Tuesday gave Trump a boost. Democrats are deflated. The party is becoming a coffee klatch run by a bunch of bickering, catty, little old ladies -- Hillary, Nancy, and Chuck Schumer. To keep the troops moving forward, they dialed up the rhetoric to 11. It isn't working.
Obama will try to rev up the base, but he split the base by playing racial politics for eight years. The return of the Black Liberation Movement under the alias of Black Lives Matter makes politics less fun for white people.Who needs the guilt? So he is turning off much of the base.
On top of that, Obama has the smell of loser now.

Trump let the air out of all of Obama's programs. We are not even six months into this administration. Even Michelle's carrot sticks and kale school lunches are gone. Trump is feeding the kids corn dogs and cheese puffs.

Ossoff's head is on the pike. Pajama Boy is this year's Wendy Davis. Abortion Barbie meet Planned Parenthood Ken.

The Karen Handel Forget Planned Parenthood Money Act is coming. Revenge is being served hot and spicy.

We may not get tired of winning, but surely the big Democratic donors are exhausted from all that losing. DNC revenues hit their lowest in 14 years last month. Adjusted for inflation that is, let's see (gets out calculator) pitiful.

At some point, losing no longer is fun. You do something else. I say this as a Cleveland sports fan. About this time of year, you assess the Indians record and calculate if the Tribe is worth the emotional investment. This year the verdict is yes. Other years no. I went through 35 seasons in which the Indians had only 6 winning seasons. A fair weather fan is a sane fan.

So it is with politics. If Trump lost, I would have quit blogging. It's that simple.
Imagine people more marginally involved in politics. Has anyone seen Jane Fonda lately?
So the short answer is Democrats are deflated, Trump is pumped.

Dave Schuler: The Democratic National Committee, with the obtuseness they've displayed for the last dozen years or so, chose to make the special elections a referendum on Trump. Now they're stuck with it.

No matter how much they wish it were otherwise, politics has been, is, and will remain local. The Democrats need to learn how to do retail politics again. Field qualified candidates who actually live in the districts they want to represent, who know the districts and are known by them. Formulate an agenda and run on issues. Build local organizations.

Don't expect the electorate at large to recoil in horror from Republicans the way you do. Other than in a few urban centers and college towns, most people just don't look at things that way.

Laura Rambeau Lee : The Democrats appear unaware the majority of Americans remain firmly center right. The Democrat Party of today offers nothing but nasty partisanship and hateful rhetoric. Their progressive Marxist ideology and identity politics appeal to a very small segment of the population. The American people do not want this continued chaos and division being stirred up by progressive agitators. We want good jobs. We want the opportunity to better ourselves and raise our families and for the most part to be let alone. We want less government intrusion into our lives, not more. We do not want a nanny state and we know that promises of free health care and college tuition are lies. We treasure our freedom and are seeing it slip away, particularly through policies implemented by the Democrat party.

The Democrat Party has no good leader and no message that appeals to the average American voter. These last special elections prove no amount of money or celebrity endorsements can buy our votes. As long as the Democrat party remains deaf to the needs of the American people and continues to push their radical agenda they will continue to lose support for their candidates.

As for me, I’m still laughing my Ossoff.

Well, there it is!Make sure to drop by every Monday for the WoW! Magazine Forum. And enjoy WoW! Magazine 24-7 with some of the best stuff written in the 'net. Take from me, you won't want to miss it.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Patrick Condell in another classic commentary, this time on what he calls the invasion of Europe. As usual, he gets right to the heart of the matter.

As Patrick Condell points out, this is a self inflicted wound, and a particularly dangerous one for women, gays and Jews. And slowly but surely, the cost of keeping these 'refugees' many of whom remain on welfare is slowly bankrupting the EU. There's also the cost, both human and financial, of crime.

Will Europe eventually wake up and stop this slow suicide? Time will tell.

A new book, "A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era," has become the number 1 best seller on Amazon in its Israeli and Palestinian History category.

Written by Israeli publicist and editor Assaf A. Voll, the book sells for $7.99.

Here's a summary of this 132-page book, easily read in one sitting:
This book is the fruit of many years of research, during which thousands of sources have been meticulously reviewed in libraries and archives worldwide. It is no doubt the most comprehensive and extensive review of some 3,000 years of Palestinian history, with emphasis on the Palestinian people’s unique contribution to the world and to humanity.

So what's the secret of its success? The passionate writing style? The meticulous research involved?
No, not exactly.

This lauded historical account, also available in Arabic and in Hebrew offers real insight. Because every one of its 120 pages is blank.

Even more to the point, Amazon isn't mentioning this in it's description of this important historical work.

Even 'Palestine's' leaders have revealed many times in the past that they adopted the name 'Palestinians' in 1965 as a tactic. For instance:

In a 1977 interview with Dutch newspaper Trouw, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein admitted frankly, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism".

And Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad made it clear that nothing has changed since 1977. This is what Hammad said when he was interviewed on Al-Hekma TV in March 2012: “Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis. Who are the Palestinians? ... We are Egyptians…”

Yasser Arafat, for example, was an Egyptian.

The word 'Palestine' itself came from the Romans, who named their conquered province as an insult to the Jews after the Jew's old enemies, the Philistines. It was after the Philistines had actually ceased to exist as a people centuries before that the Romans renamed conquered Judea 'Palestine.'

You see, Palestine is the world's most successful con game, resulting in stolen billions for Arafat, Abbas and their Fatah cronies. They picked the right enemy, the Jewish State.

Even more Ironic is the situation of the 'Palestinian refugees' on whom so much time, attention and money has been lavished and who still remain official 'refugees' after 4 generations. They even have an entire, well funded UN Agency, UNRWA, devoted to their care, feeding and welfare, something no other refugee group has ever had. It's the largest agency of the United Nations, employing over 30,000 staff and has one of the largest budgets of any UN agency, 75% of which is funded by the U.S.

The irony? It's twofold. First, these 'refugees' were given Jordanian citizenship by act of parliament in 1954, along with every other Arab living in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem after the Jordanians and their British officers ethnically cleansed every Jew from those areas after 1948. So these people are neither refugees or stateless, but are still being treated as 'refugees' 63 years later.

The second? Both of the first two UNRWA heads admitted in testimony before the UN General Assembly and before the U.S. Congress that there had been no vetting of any of these refugees to see whether they had actually ever lived in what became Israel and really were refugees. UNRWA head John Blandford Jr. admitted to congress in 1952 thqat they simply put any Arabs who showed up on the rolls for free food, housing, medical care and other assorted goodies.

Rather like what's happening today with most of those 'refugees' in Europe, if you think about it!

UPDATE: Amazon has removed the book from their site. Pity, I would have bought a copy.

Well, the Special Elections are over and those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and O! All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0

Steyn of course is completely right. Einstein's classic definition of insanity applies...doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, That's exactly where the leadership of the Democrat Party is now. Oddly enough, what's left of sanity in the party, the 18 member strong Blue Dog caucus of conservative and Centrist Democrats is meeting with top aides of President Trump, doing exactly what Steyn and President Trump suggested; opening discussions to come to agreements on issues like tax reform to come up with policies Democrats- sorry, the Blue dogs, at least - can work on and support.

While the Democrat media is characterizing this as Trump being desperate to break the DC logjam I see it as strategy, splitting the Blue Dogs off from the radical left that now has control of the Democrats. Based on the constituencies most of them represent (primarily in Red States) not only does he have a good chance at getting them to work with him, he might even get some of them to switch parties. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) who has consistently voted to support President Trump's agenda is said to be fairly close to doing that already.

With almost all the vote counted, the results are are pretty unanimous..the Republicans win Georgia 6 and Karen Handel has beaten Jon 'Pajama Boy' Ossof like a gong. Even CNN, wiping the tears from their eyes has called it for the Republicans.

At this point, Karen Handel is ahead by five points, 52.5% to Ossof's 47.5%. I guess that's all $25 million that was almost entirely out of state money buys a left wing Democrat in Georgia.

As I predicted, Ossof's lack of any relevant experience and the label of 'carpetbagger' that stuck to him because of all the out of state money and Ossof's not even living in the district hurt him.

To add insult to injury, the Republicans also won the seat in South Carolina 5.

Here's another prediction from the link above :

But here’s a prediction I feel perfectly OK making. If Ossof manages to eke out a win, the Democrats and their media will celebrate it as if the Messiah had arrived. If he loses, they will spin like tops telling everyone how unimportant it is.

I know this because this is exactly how they behaved in the Kansas and Montana special elections, both of which they were confident of winning and were viewing as ‘resistance’ against Trump. Remember when they lost, and lost handily? Suddenly neither of these races were deemed important anymore. Move along, nothing to see here.

Among the questions I can already hear Democrats asking tomorrow: Why didn’t Ossoff take the fight to Trump in his ads? And why didn’t he take a sledgehammer to the AHCA? Why did he run such a bland campaign? But I think a better explanation might be: After over $30 million in pro-Ossoff/anti-Handel ads, there is such a thing as Ossoff fatigue.

Before, Jon Ossoff was the Trump Slayer, a prog Hero. Now he's a scapegoat.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com and other publications.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

The special election in Georgia's 6th district is being held tomorrow, and as usual, pundits,particularly on the Left are making it a huge deal..a 'referendum on Trump.' It isn't, no matter who wins.

The election is being held because Republican Tom Price resigned his seat in order to become Secretary of Health and Human Services. While Price is quite conservative and won his district by over 20 points, the district itself isn't, and Price's long incumbency is due a lot more to his general character and attention to the needs of his constituents in his district. In reality, Georgia 6 is sort of a middle of the road district for the most part, one Trump won by only 1.5%.

The two candidates are Jon Ossoff, who ran unopposed as a Democrat and Karen Handel who finished on top of a field of 14 Republicans and took just enough of the votes to force a runoff. Combined, the Republican votes totaled more than Ossof's tally.

Ossoff's entire background is as a political operative. He's never done much else. He was and remains the beneficiary of huge amounts of cash,$27 million or so, almost all of it from blue strongholds like California and New York. The huge influx of out of state cash actually might hurt him, since he doesn't live in the district and has already been tagged with the label 'carpetbagger.' That still means something in this part of the country.

Another interesting factoid is that the nature of his campaign changed. Originally, he ran as 'someone who's going to make Donald Trump furious' and concentrated on attacking President Trump and his policies. Reportedly, his internals including a 'focus group' run by the DCCC discovered that wasn't playing all that well. So he stopped attacking the president in his ads and began running more of a Bernie Sanders lite, reform Washington, eat the rich,class warfare type campaign.

At the same time, Republican Karen Handel, Georgia's former secretary of State has run her campaign along the lines of tax reform and more centrist GOP lines, taking care not to ally herself too closely with the Trump presidency.

Both these factoids are evidence that the Left's frenzy over Georgia 6 being a referendum on the Trump administration are sheer nonsense. Ditto for any opinions on the Right that a victory means a major endorsement of the president. And the fact that this is likely going to be a tight race underlines the idea that this race being any kind of sign of trends in the future are ridiculous.

A prediction? The polls are pretty evenly divided some showing Karen Handel ahead and some showing Ossof ahead. All of them are within the margin of error, although Handel seems to be showing a very slight amount of momentum.

But here's a prediction I feel perfectly OK making. If Ossof manages to eke out a win, the Democrats and their media will celebrate it as if the Messiah had arrived. If he loses, they will spin like tops telling everyone how unimportant it is.

I know this because this is exactly how they behaved in the Kansas and Montana special elections, both of which they were confident of winning and were viewing as 'resistance' against Trump. Remember when they lost, and lost handily? Suddenly neither of these races were deemed important anymore. Move along, nothing to see here...

Yesterday's hit, now dubbed the DC shootings, was launched by an extremely partisan, anti-Trump activist on a group of Republican congressmen and their staffers practicing for a charity baseball game.

By now we know most of the details about the shooter, James T. Hodgkinson. He was a hard core, very politically involved Leftist influenced heavily by what he saw and heard promulgated by the Democrats and their media. For instance, here's an entry from his FaceBook page: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

Impeachment and removal from office are only the first steps; for America to be redeemed, Donald Trump must be prosecuted for treason and — if convicted in a court of law — executed.

Draining the swamp means not only ejecting Trump from the presidency, but also bringing himself and everyone assisting in his agenda up on charges of treason. They must be convicted (there is little room to doubt their guilt). And then — upon receiving guilty verdicts — they must all be executed under the law. Anything less than capital punishment — or at least life imprisonment without parole in a maximum security detention facility — would send yet another message to the world that America has lost its moral compass. In order for America’s morality and leadership to be restored, it must rebuke Donald Trump, his entire administration, and his legislative agenda in the strongest manner possible. And nothing would do more than to convict them of the highest offense defined by our Constitution, and then to deliver the ultimate punishment. Donald Trump deserves nothing less. Mitch McConnell, Steve Bannon, and Paul Ryan should also share Donald Trump’s fate, for they have done more than practically anyone to protect him and to throw our country under the proverbial bus. In order to survive, we as a nation must deliver the ultimate punishment under the law to all involved in its current destruction.

There are a lot of similar fever swamp rants I could produce that go on in quite a similar vein. And people like Hodgkinson read them, and watch them on video and TV. After all, if you truly believe what the Left is peddling 24-7, that Trump is Hitler, and a traitor who colluded with the Russians, why wouldn't you think he and his 'collaborators,'those evil Republicans' deserve to be executed? Why else do you think they call it the 'Resistance?'

Even today, after the fruits of this sort of thing have ripened into congressmen and their staffers being gunned down, a lot of voices on the Left think this was simple justice. I'll spare you the disgusting tweets ( "Too bad it wasn't Trump"). You can find those for yourself if you have a strong stomach. But for all the talk of 'unity' a lot of people on the Left think what happened yesterday was justified, either because of the innate evil of anyone who doesn't think like them or because of the Republican's support for the Second Amendment.

“Republicans are getting what they want,” Markos Moulitsas wrote on Twitter, linking to a tweet from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul that quoted Fox News personality Judge Napolitano as saying, “Why do we have a Second Amendment? It’s not to shoot deer. It’s to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!”

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) gave us a good example of the second,using the shootings to advance her call for American citizens to essentially be disarmed, which is something of a jihad for California's senior senator. Of course, she ignored the fact that the only reason a number of congressmen and their staffers weren't murdered is because the Capitol Police were in attendance as well and took the shooter out before he could finish the job. She also ignores the fact that criminals can always obtain guns illegally and that unlike her, the average American isn't gifted with trained 24-7 armed security. At taxpayer expense, I might add.

Let's face up to something. The DC shootings and other similar incidents like the Berkeley riots and the murder of police are directly linked to the extreme hatred fomented by the Left and their media. This kind of hate now grips certain sectors of America, and it has been seeded and nourished extensively by the Left and their media. It's the Left who has financed it and the Left who applauds it. There's nothing bipartisan about it. It's the Democrats and the Left who have gloried in targeting a sitting president for murder to placate what has become their base. And more mainstream Democrats have largely been silent.

Kathy Griffin’s severed head photo-shoot, Madonna telling a rally how she thinks all the time about blowing up the White House, Shakespeare in the Park performing 'Julius Caesar' and using the play as venue to call for President Trump's assassination...and those wonderful New York audiences cheering them on...the videos by Snoop Doggy Dog about shooting Trump, Jim Carey talking about how he'd like to murder the president with a golf club. They all have an effect. They are all designed to dehumanize the president and his supporters. And they have led to actual violence by #blacklivesmatter supporters, AntiFa and black bloc groups. The DC shootings cross another new, blood red line.

These are not new tactics. The idea behind them, again, is to dehumanize your opponents. They're exactly the ones Adolf Hitler, a progressive pioneer in many ways used in the 1930's with the National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazis for short. In fact, Hitler could be said to be the originator of Alinsky's famous Rule 13: 'Pick the target, freeze the target, personalize it and polarize it.'

So what are we to make of this?

I live in Realsville, so here are a few things we need to keep in mind for the future :

Do not expect the Left or their media to step back from the abyss just because of the DC shootings. Do not think there's going to be any moderation in the slander, hatred or violence. The Left revels in such things, it always has. It will continue to reward and approve them, and to finance them. And since they couldn't win an election, the next best thing for them will be to either bring down President Trump by any means necessary or make it impossible for him to govern. How successful they are depends largely on how the American people react and how effective their propaganda and violence are when it comes to intimidating opponents. So far, that has not been successful.

Be aware that the Left for the most part has no respect for law and order. But they will continue to use those of their ilk who are part of that system - Leftist Obama appointed judges, prosecutors and attorneys general in blue run states and cities, and local police chiefs under their orders -to pervert and abuse law and order whenever its remotely possible.

An example of what we can expect happened just yesterday, when, as the AP reported,200 Democrat lawmakers filed a spurious lawsuit alleging that President Trump is violating the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution. Their grounds? That even while President Trump has relinquished all control and has put his business in the hands of his elder sons while he's serving the American people for $1 per year, his business is still making money from people staying at his hotels and leasing his properties. The idea, of course, is to waste the president's time and energy while allowing their media to continue to beat the drum of supposed high crimes and misdemeanors the President could be impeached for in the unlikely event the Democrats take both houses of congress.

The Left fully understands and appreciates the use of Stalin and Goebbels's technique of the big lie, repeated over and over again. If President Trump is wise, he will avoid his personal involvement in this travesty of justice as much as possible and put together a team to both debunk nonsense like this and possibly counter sue the signatories for libel and slander. The two Democrats who organized this, Rep. John Conyers(D-MI) and Senator Richard Blumenthal(D-CT) are both despicable swamp creatures who have backgrounds and associations that are extremely easy to publicize and attack. For instance, had the law existed when he ran for the Senate, Blumenthal could plausibly have been prosecuted and convicted for violating the stolen valor statutes.

'Resistance' to Trump's emigration policies and perfectly legal travel ban will continue no matter what the Supreme Court decides. As president, Trump has a perfect right to have U.S. Marshalls or the FBI arrest any governors or mayors who refuse to obey the law for obstruction of justice. Prosecuting one of them will make the rest think twice, if the president has the courage to do so.

Expect that Mueller's 'investigation' will end with him not finding any criminal charges (because there aren't any that are remotely possible) but having enough to say about 'improper conduct' and 'possible misconduct, but I couldn't find any direct evidence' to keep the Left's fire burning. Expect Mueller to take his time as well...the Democrats are already saying they will push the bogus 'Trump-Russia' narrative through the 2018 midterms.

The police in most blue run cities and on their college campuses have already been marginalized by the local Democrat politicians.They are largely working men with families to support and pensions to protect. The best to be expected is tacit non-involvement. So be prepared to defend yourself forcefully as needed. Remember that these people are bullies who attack only en masse, hunt for people unlikely to be able to defend themselves and run away when they're confronted forcefully. Expect the violence to escalate, even to the point of more shootings and likely, an assassination attempt on the president.

Also expect that at some point, one of these budding Leftist SA Brownshirts is going to attack the wrong person at the wrong time and be severely hurt or killed by someone on the Right defending his or her life or property. When that happens, the Left and their media will go berserk as only they can and make a 'martyr' out of this thug, which is exactly what the Nazis did with Horst Wessel . When this happens it will be important that the Right applaud someone who rightfully defended themselves rather than falling into the usual craven, cowardly behavior.

Since a part of this conflict (because that's what it is) will be fought with propaganda and arguments aimed towards the deconstruction of lies and slander, it will be important to fight back with as much counter-information as possible.

This 'civil war' is not going to be fought with large armies and epic battles. It will be fought by individuals in the streets, on the Internet, in the courts and in the culture. And whatever you might think of President Trump, like it or not he is the commander in chief of our side, which is exactly why he must be supported. The alternative is rule by the totalitarian Left.

Like it or not (and I admit I personally find it distasteful) this is what we're going to be facing, the result of a quarter century of national decline.

Ronaldus Maximus was completely right when he said that freedom can be lost in a generation. Let it not be known to history, that it was in our time and by our generation.

Monday, June 19, 2017

A van plowed into Muslims leaving the Finsbury Park Mosque to walk home after taraweh, the prayers said before breaking the Ramadan fast. There are a number of casualties reported.

London Ambulance Service Deputy Director of Operations, Kevin Bate said:

“We were called at 12.15am to reports of a road traffic collision at Seven Sisters Road.

“We have sent a number of ambulance crews, advance paramedics and specialist responses teams to the scene. An advance trauma team from London’s Air Ambulance has also been dispatched by car.

“We are working closely with other members of the emergency services at the scene.

In many ways, this attack was a 'copycat' of the jihadi attack on London Bridge, using a rented van.

There is one difference. This time, the driver, who was arrested has immediately been identified by the British press as a 'white man.' Two other occupants of the van fled and are being sought by London's police.

I have been afraid of something like this happening for quite some time.

Many governments, including the UK's have been quite lax about dealing with Islamist based terrorism in their home countries for quite some time. The Finsbury Mosque, where this horrible attack took place is a prime example.

While the British press is quick to say that the mosque has changed under its new imam, The Finsbury Mosque was the notorious headquarters of jihad in London. Al Qaeda operatives including the “shoebomber” Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui attended the Finsbury Park mosque regularly. In 2002, The Guardian reported that weapons training had taken place inside the building. And it's imam for most of this period was jihadi Abu Hamza al-Masri (AKA 'Hookhand').

The UK's government did nothing about this and other jihadi outposts for years. And frequently, political correctness and multiculturalism were deemed more important than national security or even basic safety in the streets. After numerous terrorist incidents occurring and little being done except for verbiage, if non-Muslims (AKA 'whites') were responsible for this cowardly attack, it's a bad sign that shows people's tolerance for being unsafe in their home country may be coming to an end.

One of the primary reasons for having a government is to ensure public safety. If there are people who feel (with some justification) that the British Government isn't providing that, some of them are liable to take matters into their own hands, with as little regard for the innocent as the jihadis have. That could be what we have here.

That, of course, will also likely lead to a hell of 'revenge' terrorism back and forth. That's exactly what this could be the beginning of.

It is the British government's responsibility to stop this before it gets started. Innocent blood is innocent blood no matter who is responsible.

UPDATE: ISIS and other Islamist groups are already using this
to call for more terrorist attacks of the kind they already have
perpetrated. The driver of the van, by the way has been identified as
Darren Osborne, a 47-year old British man from Cardiff. As he was pinned
down and held for the police by Muslims at the mosque, he reportedly
shouted, “I’ve done my bit.” We may indeed be seeing the start of a war
here.

Every week on Monday, the WoW! community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question:What Will be The End Result Of Mueller's Investigation?

Mike McDaniel: The results of Mueller’s investigation do not require the insight of an Old Testament prophet. Special prosecutors spends tens, even hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, and they prosecute as many people for as many crimes as they can… I was going to say “for as many crimes as they can find,” but the better formulation would be: “for as many crimes as they can manufacture.”

Take the “Russian collusion” narrative. Even Democrats are beginning to back away from that one. There is no such crime as “collusion,” which is nothing more than agreeing on a course or action or working in concert toward it. One might conceivably violate portions of the espionage statutes, perhaps money laundering, even RICO, which is often stretched to attack little girls running lemonade stands, but people may discuss, even make manifest, their common views on a variety of topics--collude, if you will--without violating the law.

There might be treason, but that’s so yesterday. Progressives have always loved the Russians and envied their totalitarian ways. They only changed their views because TRUMP. Only five people in American history have been convicted of treason, but Progressives would surely think it the most important statute in the history of the Republic if they thought they could use it against President Trump or someone close to him.

Another significant problem is that as head of the Executive branch, Mr. Trump has the unlimited power to fire the Director of the FBI; he’s part of the Executive branch. President Trump has the same power to demand any federal prosecutor, from the Attorney General down to the newest junior prosecutor just hired in Buffalo Breath, ND, cease prosecution of any case. He need not produce any reason. That’s all part of the rule of law, which progressives find so inconvenient.

Let’s review: Mr. Trump, apparently feeling kindly toward General Flynn, and thinking he had suffered enough, told James Comey he hoped--hoped--Comey could see his way clear to let the Flynn case go. Comey testified--in a Mittyish manner--he didn’t consider this an order to end the investigation, which by all accounts, was already ended. He also testified he did not do anything to end that, or any other investigation, and the current, acting head of the FBI testified no one has tried to influence or stop any investigation. Yet Progressives are screaming “obstruction of justice,” and “cover up.”

How can the President of the United States obstruct justice when he did not direct Comey to do anything, and when he has absolute constitutional power to direct Comey to end any investigation at will? Even if Mr. Trump specifically told Comey to drop a specific investigation/prosecution--and he didn’t--that’s not a crime, merely an exercise of the President’s prosecutorial discretion. Whether it would be a politically wise thing to do is another matter, but a political matter, not a crime.

Mr. Trump is right. It’s a witch hunt. Mueller has been hiring legions of known leftist lawyers. I remember not long ago when James Comey was universally hailed as a straight shooter, as a man who would never put his thumb on the scale of justice. As Sarah Palin would say: “How’s that workin’ out for yah?” Now Mueller is the straight shooter, but thus far, all his rounds are bending sharply to the left.

This is nothing more than standard progressive tactics, as in the case of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Austin’s chief prosecutor, a real piece of work, was arrested for drunk driving, and her horrifically bad behavior, which required her to be strapped to a chair, and which included threats, was videotaped. As she was in charge of the state’s public accountability unit--prosecuting corrupt public officials--Perry thought it wise she resign. She refused, so Perry made it clear he’d veto funds for that sole function--not the entire prosecutor’s office--and when she still refused to resign, he did.

He was charged with multiple felonies, which came down to arguing the Governor could be convicted of crimes for exercising his constitutional authority. Perry eventually won; all charges were dismissed, but it took years, cost millions, and destroyed Perry’s presidential hopes, which, apart from the general, enthusiastic exercise of leftist hate and cruelty, was the point of the prosecution.

It is inconceivable that Mueller, who is reported to be hiring large numbers of plainly leftist lawyers, with no end in sight, will simply close up shop and announce no crimes were found. This is, in the finest progressive Washington DC style, an investigation in search of a crime, and someone to hang it on--actually, someone to hang in general. With that in mind, trifles such as probable cause, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, credible witnesses and evidence and the presumption of innocence until the state proves one guilty certainly won’t be bothered with.

In this case, Shylock will get his pound of flesh, and it will take him at least four years, or more, to get it. Just as with Rick Perry, that’s the point.

Expect that Mueller’s ‘investigation’ will end with him not finding any criminal charges (because there aren’t any that are remotely possible) but having enough to say about ‘improper conduct’ and ‘possible misconduct, but I couldn’t find any direct evidence’ to keep the Left’s fire burning. Expect Mueller to take his time as well…the Democrats are already saying they will push the bogus ‘Trump-Russia’ narrative through the 2018 midterms.

That's about as long as the Left is going to be able to keep this nonsense going. After that, the same tactic the Clintons and Obama used successfully is going to backfire on them...people get bored after awhile.

If the president does his job, the economy continues to do well, the AHCA is implemented, tax reform becomes a reality and illegal migration is curtailed, the American people at large aren't going to care about what the NYT or CNN manufactures. And the hard left will fail in its attempt to take over congress.

Dave Schuler: There will be no end result. It will grind on without much in the way of results until the end of Trump's second term, he's defeated in his bid for re-election, he resigns or declines to run for re-election, he dies in office, the investigation is terminated, either by the Congress or by the president, or some combination of the above.

Laura Rambeau Lee : The American people are outraged at the unsubstantiated allegations by unknown sources regarding the Trump Administration’s “obstruction of justice” accusations that continue to be reported in the media. Yet during former FBI Director Comey's testimony he revealed Hillary Clinton was in fact under investigation when Bill Clinton met former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her plane. Comey also disclosed that Lynch directed him not to call it an investigation and instead he should call it a “matter” when discussing it. Shortly thereafter he reported they would not be pursuing charges against Clinton after reciting a list of the numerous illegal activities committed by Clinton. This is the very definition of collusion and obstruction. This is what should be investigated. And yet the media refuses to cover and expose this story.

This is a witch hunt by people who still cannot believe their precious Hillary Clinton did not win the election and their anger has not subsided. In fact, it continues to escalate as the progressive media pushes the narrative that President Trump colluded with the Russians in the election. Since none of our intelligence agencies could find any evidence of this, they are now pursuing obstruction of justice charges against President Trump for his firing of Comey. President Trump has the constitutional power and right to fire anyone in the executive branch at any time.

Nothing good will come of this investigation. We the people need to put unrelenting pressure on our congressmen and woman to support President Trump and insist on an end to the investigation. We need to allow our president to get on with his agenda and keep his campaign promises. And those Republicans who refuse to support our president should be primaried out in 2018 and 2020. Drain the swamp.

Well, there it is!Make sure to drop by every Monday for the WoW! Magazine Forum. And enjoy WoW! Magazine 24-7 with some of the best stuff written in the 'net. Take from me, you won't want to miss it.

Now that President Barack Hussein Obama is out of office, a number of disturbing things have surfaced about Obama's signature foreign policy achievement, known as the Iran Deal. Among other things, in his lust for the Iran deal at any cost, President Obama dismantled U.S. intelligence capabilities being used against Iran and it's terrorist satellites and proxies.

As the Washington Free Beacon reported, David Asher, an adviser to Gen. John Allen at the Defense and State Departments during the time these actions took place told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 8th that top officials running several key law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Obama administration "systematically disbanded" law enforcement and intelligence activities targeting the terrorism financing operations of Iran, Hezbollah, and Venezuela. This happened during the nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

"Senior leadership, presiding, directing, and overseeing various sections [of these agencies] and portions of the U.S. intelligence community systematically disbanded any internal or external stakeholder action that threatened to derail the administration's policy agenda focused on Iran," he testified.

According to Asher's testimony, the Obama Administration deliberately obstructed U.S> intelligence and law enforcement from a prime opportunity to take apart Hezbollah's worldwide financial network, including proxy use of the U.S. banking system, moneylaundering, and narcotics sales in conjuction with the world's major drug cartels.

As a side note, Hezbollah, like most other terrorist organizations has been trafficking in drugs for years, Their headquarters, in Lebanon's Beka'ah Valley is one of the prime drug growing and refining areas in the world.

"We lost much of the altitude we had gained in our global effort, and many aspects including key personnel, who were reassigned, budgets that were slashed—many key elements of the investigations that were underway were undermined," Asher testified.

"Today we have to deal with the legacy of that and how we rebuild this capability—knowing that you can have a nuclear deal with Iran and you can contain and disrupt their illicit activities," he continued.

Another aspect that come out in the hearing that Rep. Royce referred to was a report he cited about the Obama administration's release of seven Iranian-born prisoners in U.S. custody last year as part of a prisoner swap for dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. A Politico article in April detailed how several of the seven freed Iran in's were accused by the Obama administration's own Justice Department of posing threats to national security.

Citing court filings, the report also showed that the Obama Justice Department dropped charges and international arrest warrants against 14 other men, some of whom had actually committed espionage.

David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector testified to the same panel recently about how the Obama administration also interfered with U.S. law enforcement efforts against Iran's terrorist networks.

When Rep. Royce asked Asher about this, Asher said, "We had operations that were denied overseas. We had funding that was cut," he said. "People were making decisions that the counter-terrorism mission and the Iran nuclear deal was a central and all-important element whereas containing Iran's malevolent forces was less important."

Another facet of how shameless the Obama Administration was involved what occurred just a week after the US Senate failed to stop the Iran nuclear deal, while secret 'side deals' were still being negotiated to finalize things. Iran revealed it's duplicity and its contempt for Obama and Secretary of State Kerry by launching a huge cyber attack on the U.S. State Department in late September of 2015. Not only did the Obama Administration refuse to publicly disclose the attack, but they made it classified to make sure no one else in the State Department or its private contractors did either.

At that point, of course, the deal could still have been scuttled. President Obama made a decision not to do so.

How cowardly this appeasement was can be seen by Iran's subsequent actions - holding U.S. citizens captive for ransom, ballistic missile testing, jousting with U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf and even taking a U.S. navel vessel captive and publicly humiliating its crew.

The UN isn't even bothering to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities anymore. In fact, UN inspectors never even got to see a number of Iranian facilities, which was supposed to be part of the deal. At this point, Iran is 'self-inspecting' its facilities. So much for the rigid inspections and verification creatures like Ben Rhodes sold to his friends in the U.S. media, who lapped it up and happily regurgitated it to the American people.

The Iran deal, you see, was no 'deal' at all.It was jizyeh*, monetary tribute by the Infidels (who feel themselves subdued') to the Islamic Republic. And the vast majority of the billions of dollars Iran received was given to them before they even agreed to do anything, let alone complied.

Nations frequently fall on such willful follies and appeasement.

* Qur'an 9:29. "Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Pravda-on-the-Hudson has an interesting article up that inadvertently showcases one of the effects of efforts to demonize police by the #blacklivesmatter movement and its media and political supporters.

But now, faced with thousands of vacancies, a shortage of applicants and a mandate to become as diverse as the communities they serve, police departments are rethinking requirements once considered untouchable.

New Orleans no longer automatically disqualifies those who have injected heroin or smoked crack. Aurora, Colo., has stopped using military-style running tests, but now checks how quickly candidates can get out of a squad car.

Pittsburgh, accused of discriminating against black applicants, recently updated its hiring criteria to include integrity, dependability and “cultural competence,” or the ability to incorporate diverse perspectives.

In other words, the current climate created by #blacklivesmatter, the media and Democrat politicians who cater to #blacklivesmatter for political reasons means that a lot of ordinarily desirable recruits who met the old standards involving background checks required to be hired as a police officer are no longer applying. Instead, because police departments are desperate for recruits, they're opening the doors to hiring former gangbangers. With special diversity points if they're black or Hispanic. Because of course, white police are automatically racist and can't be expected to have the 'cultural competence' to treat non-whites with fairness and competence.

In St. Paul, the department has experimented with a number of ways to find the best officers, including taking some “situational judgment” questions — meant to test common sense, adherence to police hierarchy and police priorities — off the written exam.

Chief Todd Axtell said the tests might have been unintentionally biased against minorities, proving particularly difficult for those who are not native English speakers.

“We’ve got a lot of diversity in St. Paul, and we’ve struggled with recruiting in the past, so we need to be more thoughtful about these communities,” he said. {...}

For 'minorities' read 'Somalis.'

The department’s new written tests now focus more on personal histories and community engagement, and interviews have been refocused to allow applicants to personally explain incidents that may have previously disqualified them.

“Some people have been caught doing bad things and other people haven’t been caught,” Chief Axtell said. “The question we have is, ‘Was ownership taken?’”

Ownership???? As in 'yeah, I did it. I've gotten over it, you should too.'

As police departments grapple with complaints of excessive use of force and retrain officers to “de-escalate,” or defuse, tense encounters, Chief Axtell said he had used the interviews to identify one personality flaw that in the past might have gone overlooked.

“People who I believe have a short fuse,” he said, “will not get the opportunity in this department.”

Not that we want trigger happy police, but we've already seen policemen being murdered attempting to 'de-escalate.'

Now this isn't the first time this sort of change has happened after the media whips up an incident to a frenzy. After the Rodney King riots, old school police chief Daryl Gates was forced out and Willie Williams, Los Angeles's first black police chief was hurriedly hired. Williams proved comically inept and had personal corruption issues to the point where the City of Los Angeles eventually bought his contract out for a hefty sum to get rid of him. But he hung around long enough to implement new hiring practiced in the LAPD that pretty much mirrored what the New York Times is talking about here, where standards for police were dramatically lowered.

The result was the Rampart Division scandal, which involved major police corruption including falsifying evidence, perjury, the targeting of specific gangs for the benefit of other sets and the theft of drugs by policemen from police property areas among other things. In the end, Ramparts negated over 100 convictions, put criminals who were actually guilty of violent crimes back on the streets because of police errors and cost the City of Los Angeles $125 million in financial settlements.

It's a guaranteed recipe. Demonize police in big cities with fake prosecutions like Freddie Gray and Michael Brown and add a healthy dose of racialist politics. Then watch as people with impeccable backgrounds no longer find the job desirable and don't apply, or the ones already there get fed up and leave as the job becomes unbearable.

Then, when you lower the standards simply to get more bodies on the street with diversity uber alles as a guideline, that leads to a whole different set of problems.

No police force is perfect, but demonizing police for political purposes is always a bad idea. And keep in mind that the people sponsoring this kind of attitude usually don't have to live with the consequences, because they have 24-7 private security...many times paid for by the taxes on the same people who will have to live with those consequences.